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Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

reuters.com

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Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#671

Post by addisonl »

cs702 wrote: post #647
addisonl wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is one of the least reliable brands you can buy: https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2023-us-vehi... Only Ford/Lincoln, Audi, and Land Rover are worse—all notoriously unreliable brands.

Consumer Reports and others have found that most of the "issues" reported with EVs in these rankings are software glitches , often solvable with a reboot or an over-the-air software update: https://www.greencars.com/expert-insights/are-electric-cars-... Those findings are consistent with my experience.

“The organization also found that Tesla, which is often lauded for its sophisticated technology, was not a paragon of reliability, ranking dead-last among brands”

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#672

Post by thejazzman »

My 2015 85D's battery, with only 70k miles, died the day after the warranty expired.

$15k to have them out in another refurbished, 8yo battery. And they kept mine to resell to someone else for $15k.

Any other company I'd say it's a coincidence. But I suspect it was suppressing errors during the warranty period :/

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#673

Post by willcipriano »

7thaccount wrote: post #563
malwrar wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually got stranded once for some hours because of the mileage indicator! Was driving back from a campsite that I turned out to not have charging compatibility with, but thought I had plenty of margin to get to the nearest charger. As I drove through the mountains however, I began noticing that a.) my battery was depleting much faster than expected and b.) I wasn’t seeing any houses and very few motorists. I watc…

On a highway my hood latch broke (old car) and it flew up at 50 mph and crushed my windshield. I had no service (but knew the other carrier would have full bars) and spent over an hour waving at every car trying to get someone to stop to let me call my parents (I was 18 and not exactly intimidating). It was a crazy experience as I'd obviously had an accident. Nobody would help. Finally I just stood in the road like a…

I know what gender you are.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#674

Post by malwrar »

johntiger1 wrote: post #252
malwrar wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually got stranded once for some hours because of the mileage indicator! Was driving back from a campsite that I turned out to not have charging compatibility with, but thought I had plenty of margin to get to the nearest charger. As I drove through the mountains however, I began noticing that a.) my battery was depleting much faster than expected and b.) I wasn’t seeing any houses and very few motorists. I watc…

It's a very humbling experience to be ignored by so many folks, glad you reflected on that. The story about the couple just flat out walking away strikes me as obtusely anti-social, but sadly not unexpected in our day and age. Just out of curiosity, where was this?

I went camping somewhere at/near Sequoia National Forest (forgot where) and was traveling to the charger at Inyokern. I think we got stuck on highway 178, about 3/4 of the way there.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#675

Post by malwrar »

yafbum wrote: post #275
malwrar wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually got stranded once for some hours because of the mileage indicator! Was driving back from a campsite that I turned out to not have charging compatibility with, but thought I had plenty of margin to get to the nearest charger. As I drove through the mountains however, I began noticing that a.) my battery was depleting much faster than expected and b.) I wasn’t seeing any houses and very few motorists. I watc…

Tbh though, going up a mountain is insanely more energy consuming than regular driving, so the range indicator can't possibly take this into consideration ahead of time unless you chart a specific trip. In the other direction, I've had the experience of the battery charge level continuously increasing while going down a long mountain road - infinite range!

To be clear, I meant me hiking up a mountain. I thought I might have gotten signal up there (wasn’t too high up, just a fairly far walk), but I was also thinking of stories about people dying when they leave their cars to go for help and figured it’d be smarter to wait for someone to pass by.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#676

Post by chemmail »

jvanderbot wrote: post #8

I have a model Y. I hate almost everything about it. But most germane, The "Battery meter" at the top of the display is total bunk. That's got to be "rosy" numbers. It'll display a the battery in miles, but it's at least 25% inflated. However if you punch in a destination, you'll get exact numbers, and those are insanely reliable. It claims (and I don't believe any claims coming from tesla) that it'll factor wind, el…

There is a reason why the mileage estimate on EVS are called GOMS (guess o meters). They are like laptops, totally unreliable. They should really just stick to percentages. I don't think anyone really relies on the mileage left in gas cars, that mentality should be carried over to EVs. The number is really the fault of the EPA which uses a synthetic tests and allows manufacturers to just run with that.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#677

Post by oska »

AlexandrB wrote: post #485
FireBeyond wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. You won't need to be towed, for one (I know that many tow services now are equipping their vehicle with a charger). No specialized equipment required, just someone with or willing to give you a ride to buy a $10 gas can and a gallon of gas, which should be enough.

Or the tow trunk just brings a jerry can with them and fills you up - no need for the tow itself.

A similar vehicle could come out and give you a top up charge

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#678

Post by krisoft »

BizarroLand wrote: post #624
AlexandrB wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to see some kind of standardized way of supplementing an electric car's battery. Most people don't need massive EV range all of the time, just when going on long trips. Being able to buy or rent an extra battery pack and throw it in the trunk, frunk, or back seats to add more range seems ideal for those cases.

I've thought it would be great if there were rentable battery trailers that had an extra full charge or two built in, plus maybe some extra storage. uHaul could make a killing off of them for people who want to take their EV on a road trip. If you could get 600 miles off of a single combined full charge you would be in the range of reasonable American road trip distance, and you could make the choice to stop and eat…

But of course uHaul can’t do this without the full cooperation of the electric vehicle manufacturers. As a first order approximation of course there is nothing tricky about suplementing the power of a running EV, but on a practical level I would expect the firmware to throw a hissy fit if it does not expects this.

Also, why a battery trailer? Why not a gas tank plus generator trailer?

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#679

Post by ethanbond »

gonehome wrote: post #497
ravenstine wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very impressive. I was totally unaware to the extent of where chargers have been placed. There's even a supercharger located in Green River, UT, which was exactly the kind of place I was picturing in my head.

Yeah - it's pretty wild, Tesla really committed to this a decade ago and has been chipping away at it since, the investment paid off. Even better, strategically Tesla created the "NACS" or North American Charging Standard which is a clever name for their far superior Tesla charger. They also pivoted from the superchargers being an exclusive reason to buy a Tesla to licensing them for other EVs - now Ford is onboard,…

Can you explain why other manufacturers switching to NACS is advantageous to Tesla?

Are they collecting fees or is there some reason bp or Shell or Exxon couldn’t just add NACS chargers to all their real estate and steal share from Superchargers?

I have yet to see any explanation as to how the switch to NACS is actually good for Tesla, other than testimony to the standard design being better than CCS?

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#680

Post by cyanydeez »

johntiger1 wrote: post #252
malwrar wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually got stranded once for some hours because of the mileage indicator! Was driving back from a campsite that I turned out to not have charging compatibility with, but thought I had plenty of margin to get to the nearest charger. As I drove through the mountains however, I began noticing that a.) my battery was depleting much faster than expected and b.) I wasn’t seeing any houses and very few motorists. I watc…

It's a very humbling experience to be ignored by so many folks, glad you reflected on that. The story about the couple just flat out walking away strikes me as obtusely anti-social, but sadly not unexpected in our day and age. Just out of curiosity, where was this?

Also, normal people don't buy tesla
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